Doctor Who: The New Adventures
by Jetplague
Summary: THE TIME LORD - The First Doctor returns in a new re-telling of his original journey in time and space. With his granddaughter Susan and his companions Barbara and Ian, they venture together into danger, mystery and encounter enemies a long the way
1. Chapter 1

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DOCTOR WHO

_Based on the BBC program of "Doctor Who" created by Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber and Donald Wilson._

The Time Lord

By Jeff Walker

**Chapter One **

Earth

November 23rd, 1963

London, England.

In a rural area of the city, a lone male figure stands looking out the window of the old brick stoned school that has stood there for many long years. The dimming sun shined through the clouds as it cast its beams down onto the building. An old design of stone and brick that looked repaired over the years, a reminder perhaps back from the days of World War II. The bombings destroyed many old style buildings of the London scene and were quickly rebuilt with other materials at the time. But now the bricks and stones look completely as if they belong, the long wear and tear of the weathered years have returned the school to a unique look again. The Caucasian man standing at the white trimmed window gives a long glance out of them and gave a soft sigh. His dark brown eyes gave the look of a man totally lost in his thoughts. As he turned around to look inward at the room, the slightly large wooden teacher's desk showed a box full of items stuffed to the brim with personal effects, pictures and doctrines of his academic knowledge.

The man shifted his feet over to the table and took hold of the box with yet another long sigh. Taking more papers and books laying near the box, he now gazed at them as he placed them inside of it to continue his clean up of the area. The classroom itself is of very average size, full of small wooden student desks and chairs that are vacant as the children shuffle in the halls as they get ready to leave for home. The end of the day brings much joy to all the students, all but for Ian Chesterton as he packs his belongings into the box. This day is that of his termination, a teacher no more. By the number of graduate degrees and pictures of him with his students, Ian was a teacher of greatness. He giggled at old pictures he found of him with some of the faculty, especially of that of a woman he was seen giving a shoulder hug too with great affection. His fingers stroked on her face as he glanced at the image, but then shook his head and placed it into the box as well.

Ian Chesterton was nearing his mid-thirties and seemed to feel every bit of that age. Even though some had complimented him on his youthful face and deep chestnut hair, he couldn't put it past himself that he was growing old and had seen the white hair setting in. Often he would muse to himself that being in your thirties isn't really old, but his lifestyle and boring daily routines made him feel as if he was twice that age. His white collared shirt and light sandy looking cardigan, made his black trousers stick out like sore thumbs. If his faded brown loafers didn't give away his apparent lack of style, then the rest of the ensemble did the job for him. Packing away the last item in his box, he picked up an apple that remained alone on the table and playfully tossed in his hand. A sudden knock at the door made him almost lose balance to catch it, and quickly kept it tight in his hand.

"Yes? Come in." He answered.

"Sorry to bother you." The woman entering apologized. "I just wanted to talk."

She was exactly like the woman in the picture he was giggling about earlier. Barbara Wright, a fairly younger woman with long hair of strawberry blonde pinned up in a bun at the top of her head. She was a pretty woman of average height and of average weight. Ian immediately changed his attitude as she stepped in making himself look busy packing when there was nothing left to pack at all.

"What's there to talk about?" He said looking in his box and fiddling with the pictures.

Ms. Wright ringed her hands and nervously glared at him.

"Did you explain what happened to them? Did they accept your apology?"

"I did indeed." Ian blinked calmly.

"And?" She asked.

He picked up more of his books beside him and put them in the box.

"I'm sacked and that's that as they say. No short term suspension, no letter of reference from them and one rather nasty speech by the Head Master himself."

"Ian…" She said to him stepping into the classroom. "It wasn't your fault. I blame myself for being so stupid."

"Barbara, its not your fault either." He replied to her with compassion. "I took the blame for it all and defended you. Otherwise they would have had you out of here too. But, why should both of us suffer for being so reckless? You're needed here more then I am."

She shut the door behind her and came over to touch his cheek with affection.

"Oh Ian...I can't believe they're doing this to us. It was just a kiss, a harmless passionate moment between two people…"

"In the hallway." Ian pointed out to her. "Just as this school's Head Master passed by, it was careless of us and rather just bad timing on our part. To him and many of the faculty it was appalling, you've just left your husband and I…the widowed bachelor. How did he put it? Oh yes…'Teachers aren't supposed to get involved with each other on school grounds.' A ridiculous policy to be sure, but one that's enforced here none the less. The entire faculty is behind him on that one. That's discrimination for you."

"Yes but its such a foolish thing for them to have." Barbara scowled. "I mean it was just in the moment…you and I have been working for so long, comforting each other in terrible moments and being so lonely…we just…just…"

"Shared a feeling between a man and a woman." He smiled as he leaned on the box looking at her. "We've been good friends for sometime…I honestly don't know how we managed to hold back for so long before."

"I didn't think there was anything there to be honest." The woman said as she rubbed her arms and walked over to the window. Her eyes tear up slightly as she tired to hide her emotions.

"Nor I for that matter." Ian chuckled. "I guess I wanted to do it for so long…I just caved. It's been so long since….well…"

Barbara turned around and quickly nodded at him.

"I know. Your wife sounded like a wonderful woman, I'm so sorry she died in that terrible traffic accident. Its hard to lose the ones we love…how to pick up the pieces again one thinks?"

"Exactly." Ian smiled at her. "But it's been sometime and I'm sure she would hate to think of me not living my life. At least, I had you as a friend to be with me in my times of need. Just as I was there for you when your husband left you for someone else. We comforted one another, tended to each other…we seemed to have a common bond in our loneliness."

"Perhaps it was the loneliness between us that caused that kiss to happen." She smiled back at him.

"Perhaps." He nodded. "And now one kiss between us has caused a controversy in the halls of this school. Dismissed after all these loyal years of teaching…you'd think that would account for something."

Both share a moment of silence as they keep eyes locked on one another, but soon Ian grabbed his box and motioned to the door with his head.

"Come on, you can keep me company while I take this to the car."

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

As Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright stroll through the narrow halls of the school, they share a few laughs as they reminisced of old times and discuss their students. The hallway is light yellow and green in color, a black and white checkerboard tiled floor stretched down all the way. Barbara put on her cream colored shawl over her green flowered white shirt, a pair of brown slacks match her light brown heeled shoes as she took Ian in arm as they walk together.

"I'm going to miss this place." Ian admitted to her. "Most of all the students. Teaching them was challenging to me."

"Oh I know." She nodded. "They all loved you. Challenge is what they all wanted it seems and you gave it too them without insulting their intelligence. I'd wish I knew how to cope with that….especially with those that try to challenge you back."

"What do you mean?" Ian asked as they continue to stroll to the end of the hall. "Have you found a student that challenges you? You of all people Ms. Wright?"

"To be honest yes. There is one that sort of…oh I dunno, just sort of sticks out from the others."

"Oh?" He said in a curious tone. "How so?"

"Well, it's this girl actually." She winced. "A fairly new student, bright and inquisitive, but always arguing with me about the facts of my history lessons."

Ian stopped in his tracks and looked at her with realization.

"I know which one mean. You're talking about…uh…what's her name…Susan isn't it?"

"Yes." Barbara answered with surprise. "That's her. Susan Forman. Did you have her too?"

"Mathematics is her strong suit." Ian snickered as he thought about her. "But like you she was questioning me about the dynamics of the problems. Giving me all this poppycock about calculations of the fourth and fifth dimensions. Theories in time and space. Oh, what a girl. I told her they weren't practical applications of what we were trying to learn, yet she wouldn't do the work unless I took them into account."

Barbara shook her head in disbelief and looked at him.

"Such a strange child. She tried to tell me the French Revolution was full of missing details and of people that I've never heard of before. And when the class laughed at her answers she quickly snapped into a quiet demeanor and refused to answer any more history questions."

"She has an odd look about her don't you think?" Ian asked.

"Odd? I don't know what you mean?" She glared at him with curiosity.

"Well I'm not saying she's ugly, far from it. There's just something about her appearance that strikes me as odd. She's not from England or English born is what I mean. I wonder if her relatives are just as odd looking as her?"

"I can't believe you're saying that." Barbara gazed at him as she rolled her eyes. "Really Ian."

"Hear now…what's that look for?"

"Oh nothing…"

Ian watched her as she walked over to the doors and kept it for him as he finally stepped through. She gave him a disapproving shake of her head and he in turn winked at her as he passed by. Barbara was completely amazed at his racial prejudice, an educated man like that giving in to typical views of foreigners. But such is the times they live in. Even she had to admit to having a nasty thought of someone that was not of English background. The world was changing in this decade; ideas, politics and even viewpoints of people were being reshaped because of the events around them. The younger generation was coping better then most of the older kind, yet both she and Ian were in the middle gap, clinging to both views and having a mild acceptance to the changes around them. While they grabbed their coats from the cloakroom at the end of the corridor, Ian gave one last long look to the school he was leaving behind and turned back to Barbara's smiling face.

"They won't forget you Ian. You inspired their imaginations." She said taking hold of his hand.

"Not only them I hope." He said smiling back at her.

Barbara gave a tug of his hand as a friendly response. Together they finished the long walk out of the school that he would no longer teach at for the rest of his days.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Outside the sun was beginning to set, a low haze was also starting to set in and Barbara covered herself a bit more with her full-length jacket she put on as they exited the school. She gave a slight shiver as she felt the cold all around. Ian had already had his long grey trench coat on and carried the box over to his vehicle near by. As Barbara quickly darts out after him, Ian opens his car and placed his belongings into the back of it. Closing the door afterwards, he looked up to see Barbara standing beside him and looking out at the street beyond.

"You alright?"

"I'm worried about that girl Ian." She grimaced at him.

"Who?" He asked.

"Susan Forman." She answered. "Every day after school, she walks alone and well after anyone else is around to join her."

"Maybe she's just not too far?" Ian said looking out just as she was. "Maybe she just shy? What difference does it make? She's probably long gone now."

"That's just it Ian. She's on her own out there in city…it's not right for a girl that young and certainly not after dark like this."

"Strange children like her probably love the night air." He joked.

"Please Ian!" She said in frustration. "I'm being serious. She's all alone out there."

Ian began to think she was right, the darkness was starting to set in and a young girl wandering the streets of London was a dangerous thought indeed. He rubbed the back of his neck in frustration and finally nodded to her in agreement.

"Yes, I suppose it is rather disturbing to think that poor girl out there on her own. You'd think at least she'd ride on a bus or get a cab ride."

"I tried to get the address of where she lived from the secretaries office." Barbara said rubbing her arms from the cold night setting in. "It's the strangest thing. The address Susan gave was rather unusual. I drove around looking for it one day just to see where it was…then I found it. The street had no homes or flats around the area, just a large Junkyard at the end. I thought for sure I had got the name wrong or the number at least, but when I looked it up in the office again, I found I was right."

"A junk yard? Are you sure?" Ian questioned.

"Positive. 76 Totters Lane, there's nothing there but an old Junkyard. That's the only thing out there on that dead end street."

"Maybe her father owns it?" Ian scoffed.

"Grandfather actually. She told me bits and pieces about him and the fact he lets her do her own thing. But I thought he was a Doctor of some sort?" Barbara says in a frustrated voice. "I highly doubt a Doctor lives in a junkyard of all places."

"You're right." Ian glared. "I asked her if someone was helping her study…seeing how she was getting overly complicated on the answers, but she told me no one was. She said her Grandfather insisted on her figuring it out for herself."

The two looked at each other with confusion and then turned their attention to the streets beyond.

"Oh Ian…" Barbara sighed. "Perhaps we should find out what's going on with her. I'd hate to think she's living in a junkyard and making this all up to simply keep in school."

"Alright…lets go then." He said taking out his car keys. "She's probably nearly there now…hop in and we'll see if she goes there."

"What are we going to do when we get there?" She questioned coming to the opposite side of his car.

"We'll think of something on the way. Come on."

The woman gave a sigh of relief and joined him as he opened up his vehicles' doors. As they both sit inside, Ian started his small car and began to shift into reverse out of the parking spot. He switched on his headlights and headed out onto the darkened roads of London.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"Susan! Will you stop making up nonsense! I will not have you going on with this fantasy…read the lesson and no more adding in your own imagination."

"It's not fantasy Ms. Wright! This history is wrong I tell you…I know it is! It's just all wrong!"

Barbara sat there in the car thinking of her conversation with the young girl she's worried about. She found it odd that Susan Forman would constantly bicker about the minor details and facts of key historical moments. That Queen Elizabeth the first was nearly assassinated before being crowned, that Napoleon was developing secret weapons to win the war, and that all of ancient Rome was nearly wiped out by an unknown disease that was never recorded to happen. Fabricated stories that this little girl would spill out before all of the class, it made the school teacher mad thinking about all this fantasy that filled this child's head up so. She wondered desperately what could make Susan lie so much and make her so determined that everything she said was absolute. The Grandfather. It had to be this man filling her head with nonsense. Barbara bit her thumbnail lightly as she continued to think while Ian drove to their destination.

"You're being rather quiet." Ian glanced at her. "I could turn on the radio if you like? To break the silence."

"No." She muttered to him. "I like the quiet. I'm just thinking that's all."

"Oh?" He inquired as he kept his eyes focused ahead. "About Susan is it? Come on…fill me in on things."

Barbara let out a breath and rubbed her forehead. She kept her head tilted to the side of window and began to share her thoughts with him.

"Such an…an unearthly child."

"I beg your pardon?" Ian giggled.

"Oh, I just mean she's so beyond our level of thinking. On the one hand she's got a vast grip on advanced subjects and then the next…it's as if she's lost interest in the remaining courses."

"Yes." Ian nodded slightly. "She does well in math, science, biology, history…but not so much in sports, art or…well I guess whatever she feels is mundane. But it's also a few minor things too, like money…she doesn't seem to grasp the concept of its importance. 'Oh were on metric...not decimal', she'd say to me, as I'd have to correct her. I had to help her figure out basic figures and why people would spend it on what she called 'strange things'. I was at a loss on how she managed to survive outside of the school."

"You've noticed then." Barbara said as she turned to look at him. "She's strange and isolated from others. Borderline genius but also quite slow to learn other non-intellectual pursuits."

"Well, Einstein wasn't so great in few areas. Simple math was hard to grasp for the old boy."

"I think she's confused." Barbara said as she sat back and faced forward again. "Torn between living a normal life or becoming something special. Maybe I was pushing her too much, maybe she just needs better tutoring…I….I don't know."

Ian said nothing else as he left her alone to nervously bite down onto her nails. While he was worried about her and her obsession about this girl, he was more concerned about the kiss he should never have given Ms. Wright. It was innocent enough he thought, a simple spark between them that might otherwise never have happened had she not dropped her marked term papers on the floor. The timing was just wrong is all. The dean catching them was probably divine intervention in some way; perhaps the two of them had grown too close to one another. Maybe this was for the best, at least, that's what Ian was thinking in his head as he drove on saying nothing to her.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

Parking near the entrance to the end of the dead end street, Ian turned off the car and switched off the lights. The two teachers slink down in their seats to hide themselves, all the while keeping a vigilant eye on the closed Junkyard ahead. The mist had come in by the time they had reached their destination. A fog that seemed to murk the darkness even more then it already was. As the two of them kept out of sight, the slow clicking of shoes in the distance made Ian nudge his head up to have a peek. It was a lone police officer walking through the streets, checking the surrounding doors and flashing his light around as a measure of security. Ian ducted back down as the light shone over to him, fearing the policeman saw him inside the car. But as the light moved away, he could also here the slow taps of his footsteps moving off in the opposite direction. Safe from being detected, Ian gave a nervous giggle as he sat shoulder to shoulder with Barbara.

"What's so funny?" She whispered.

"Us." He stated. "Look at us Barbara…we're like two teenagers trying not to get caught as if we're out during curfew or something."

Barbara started to snicker as well.

"It does feel a bit foolish of us hiding like this. Like something out of a mystery novel."

They both share a bit of a laugh as they shift about to keep themselves low. But Ian slowly stops laughing as he darts his eyes over at her and gave a rather inquisitive look.

"Barbara?" He started to say. "Are we becoming more then just friends? I mean…the kiss we gave seemed to give that impression I suppose."

The strawberry blonde haired teacher simply averted her eyes from him and became coy in her answer.

"I don't know really. I like you Ian; you've been a great friend to me and everything. We seem to enjoy each other's company…we have similar interests…but…"

"But?"

"But…I don't want to lose the friendship we already have." She said as she moved away slightly. "I've been hurt before Ian. Sometimes friendships can dissolve rather quickly once it becomes more…"

"I see." He said in a disappointed tone.

Barbara quickly rubbed his shoulder and gazed upon him with sympathy.

"You're my best friend Ian. I love you dearly, but now you'll be going to another school and we might not see as much of each other. I just don't want to lose what we have right now…as dear friends."

"Yes." He nodded in agreement. "I understand, really I do. Let's not say any more of it for now. It was just a moment of weakness…on both our parts."

As the two smile at one another, the sound of smaller sounding footsteps now echo down the streets. Ian and Barbara rise slowly up from their crouched position and peer out the windshield. From out of the shadows of darkness and fog, came a young girl with short black hair, innocent eyes and wearing a uniform of the school colors. As she stopped to look around, the two teachers noticed her pulling out a pocket radio and turning it on. She fumbled with the dial and got it to a station that was playing the latest band of the times.

"That's Susan." Barbara whispered.

"Yes…we managed to beat her here it seems." Ian observed.

Susan was listening to the modern music and swaying her hips to the beat. Like any teenaged girl, she was happily dancing to the music that she loved. She soon approached the doors of the junkyard and took out a key to unlock it. Before she stepped in, Susan took another look around and made sure no one was looking. Barbara couldn't believe this is where a girl like her was residing in. She must have been either desperately poor or a runaway trying to live on her own. Either way, Barbara was not going to let her suffer in a filthy place like this.

"She's gone inside." Ian said. "Come on, we'll follow her in."

"No." Barbara said as she grabbed his arm. "We can't just go in there…oh Ian, she'll be mortified. Can't we just get the police or someone that can help the poor girl?"

"Barbara, this was your idea to come here and confront the child. We've got to at least show her that we are here to help in anyway we can. You do want to help her don't you?"

"Yes of course I do." Barbara sighed. "I want to help her very much…but not like this."

Barbara gave a long shiver and stared at the junkyard with a nervous gaze.

"Is it right for us to go in there? I just feel….oh I don't know what to feel really."

Ian stepped out of the car and stretched his back, as he let out a quiet groan of pain; he peered back into the car and looked at her again.

"Look, how bout this then? We go inside, we find her and tell her we've come to help, if she doesn't want it or protests our being there…we leave."

The light haired woman rose up out of her seat and nodded in agreement with his suggestion. She calmly stepped out of the car and proceeded to walk with him carefully over to the junkyard's doors. The chilly night air made them both wrap their coats tightly to warm themselves. Ian went a step further by trying to heat his hands with his breath as he approached the doors. Old pine is what they were made out of; slightly rotting and paint peeling off of them gave a sign to their age. Even the name of the owner, Forman, was faded and worn from all the times it had been handled. Ian quickly noticed the door had not been locked up again, Susan either forgot or simply doesn't like to lock the doors at night he figured. It made his job easier at any rate, he opened one of the doors and slowly stepped trying not to make a sound. Barbara did the same as he did, stepping in after him and closing the door behind just incase someone might see it open and have them arrested for trespassing.

•••••••••••••••••••••••

The junkyard was exactly as both pictured it. Dark and full of discarded items of every kind. Furnisher, baby carriages, car parts, and store dummies…it was a vast array of junk that Londoners piled in there. It was almost eerie to Barbara, the shadows and strange looking garbage lying about was the stuff of child nightmares. Being an open yard, the mist was also very much drifting inside there as well. The view was anything but easy to see, darkness and fog hazed the whole place like a veil over their eyes.

"Where has she gone?" Ian asked as he looked around the misty covered area. "I could have sworn I heard that music she had on only moments ago."

"Maybe she turned it off?" Barbara said as she kept close to him. "Or perhaps she saw us coming in?"

"If that's so, where has she gone too?" He inquired as he looked about. "Place is too dark to see."

As they stepped inward a bit further, Ian tripped and fell to the ground. Barbara quickly came to his aid and lifted him up.

"Are you ok?"

"Blast it all!" Ian grumbled. "Tripping in the dark over my own feet. We should have brought a torch with us."

As he cleaned off his trousers, Ms. Wright looked up and noticed a strange box in the center of the junkyard. A vertical rectangular blue box that seemed to sit in the shadows with nothing else around it or with any of the junk resting on it. A light was glowing out from the small frost covered windows and the small overhead sign built into the top of it. Tapping his shoulder in haste, Barbara gets Ian's attention.

"Look! Over there…what's that?"

Ian watched her point in the direction and peered with his eyes.

"A blue box." He whispered in awe. "Why it's a Police Box! What the devil is one doing in here?"

"Maybe it's being scrapped?" Barbara quipped.

"But then why would there be power in it?" Ian questioned.

Barbara shrugged and looked at it again with doubt.

"There's no wires coming down to it." Chesterton observed. "It could be possible the wires are coming from below it. Might be just a lantern or something switched on in there. Who knows?"

"Maybe Susan is in there." The woman smiled at him. "Maybe that's her real home."

Ian just looked at her with a mocking squint and casually walked over to the police box. The sign above the only door was lit and had the words 'Police Public Call Box'. The front two doors had handles for opening on them, but the right side had the key lock just above its handle. He circled around it completely and gave yet another puzzled face. He couldn't figure out where the power was coming from, nor the reason for having a Police Box in a junkyard of all places. Police boxes where found in most places around London street corners, but rarely used any longer. They we once used by officers to keep prisoners detained while help arrived, or for the police themselves to keep warm during winter as they made a call to the police station. It had many uses for the force a long time ago. Now it was just a fading bit of history that was becoming obsolete.

Placing his hand on the wooden panel, he was shocked to feel a pulsating power coming from it. He took a step back and gawked at the blue object with great surprise.

"My god!" He gasped. "It's alive!"

"What?" Barbara laughed.

"I swear to you!" Ian glared at her. "Come an feel it for yourself. There's some sort of current running through this thing."

The woman walked over to his spot and placed her hand on the box as well. Just as Ian's eyes had done, her eyes now widened with alarm.

"I don't like this Ian." She nervously stated. "I feel wrong being here all of a sudden."

"Calm yourself Barbara…"

"No Ian." She said as she pulled her hand off and backed away slowly. "I feel like we're about to meddle in something we shouldn't. Let's go…please."

Ian shaked his head at her quick change in mood and grabbed her by the shoulders in comfort.

"What about Susan? Do you want to know if she's alright or don't you?"

The female teacher calmed down from her panic and nodded in agreement. That is after all why she came; a student living in a place like this concerned her greatly. But this police box was giving her a strange vibe that just triggered the fearful emotion within her.

"She's got to be in this thing." Ian said turning back to the box and feeling around it for an entry. "But I don't hear any music, she had the radio on full blast…I know she had it on."

As Barbara stood there helplessly watching him trying to open the police box, a black cane with a silver-tipped end arose out of the darkness behind her and taps the woman on the shoulder.

"Can I help you young people?"

Barbara lets out scream and runs over to Ian in fright. He quickly turns around to catch her in his arms and noticed an old man stepping closer to them. The light was faint, but the box's windows were giving off enough to make out his features. The Caucasian man looked as if he was in his late 60's to early 70's. White hair that seemed brushed back to his neck and sported a narrow black fur trimmed hat that sat askew to the right of his head. Many older Englishmen wore them in the cold months, but it seemed to complete the look of this slightly winkled face senior. His knee length coat was also black, with a white shirt and a silk black ribbon tie. He had a dark red woolen scarf wrapped around his neck and tucked under his coat. His pants where grey pinstripes that pointed down to his black polished loafers, he looked more like a well dressed late 19th Century gentleman then someone from the 1960's. It made Ian smirk a bit at the sight of him.

"Who are you?" Ian finally managed to ask.

"More to the point dear sir…who are you? And what are you two doing here?" The old man bitterly responded.

"Well, I'm Ian Chesterton and this is Ms. Barbara Wright. We're schoolteachers looking for a young girl that came in here not too long ago. Did you happen to see her?"

The old man patted his side pocket and cleared his throat.

"No…I'm afraid not. Now then, if you don't mind would you please leave…you're trespassing on my property."

"Are you sure you didn't see a dark haired girl come inside here?" Barbara now added. "A teenage girl with a radio in hand?"

"No." The old man sharply replied. "No one like that came in here. Now that I've answered your question…"

Ian boldly stepped closer to the brash senior and pressed him further.

"Please just let us have a look around, we'll only be a few minutes."

"Yes." Barbara agreed. "We only want to make sure she isn't in here. She might have broken in just as means to cut through to the other side of your property."

"Of course not. Don't be stupid." The senior snapped at her. "The only ones I've seen breaking in here are you two. Now then…get out, both of you!"

Ian didn't like the way he answered, especially towards Ms. Wright. Ian scowled in anger and growled back at him.

"Now see here! There's no need to be like that…"

The old man interrupted his words with a loud chuckle and proceeded to walk past him with an arrogant manner. Sheepishly he stepped up to the blue box's only accessible door.

"Oh go away, go away young man!" He managed to laugh out. "Take your friend and leave this place. There's nothing here for you to see, no little girl or lost persons of any sort. Please leave or I shall be forced to call for the police."

"Well why don't you just use the phone in that box then? I for one would like to have their services in this case." Ian replied in a smug tone. "We'll wait here while you phone them. If that thing actually works that is?"

"It works well enough young man. And don't try to be so brash with me. I'll do it you know?" The aged man harps back. "I'll call them and have you locked away! Yes, sent to prison for breaking in and causing a disturbance!"

Barbara was now also angry with this crabby person, his words were cruel and offensive to them for just asking a simple question. She sided up with Ian and waved her finger bitterly at the snickering old fool.

"If anyone is going to call the police it should be us! I don't know who you are or whom you think you are…but you simply don't talk to others this way. We're only trying to find a lost child and see if she's alright…you stubborn, bitter old fool!"

"W-w-why that's outrageous of you madam!" He replied in shock. "How dare you to speak to me in that way. Have you no respect for your elders?"

"Respect is given to those who give it back." Ian proudly stated. "You're showing us none, we're only showing the same."

Turning back to the power pulsing blue box, the old stranger slips his key into the lone keyhole and mutters to himself. He's grown impatient and flustered by the confrontation, but his mind suddenly shifts away from the teachers and focuses back on the police box with his hand on the key.

"I haven't the time for this. We've stayed to long…I see that now, that much is apparent. Humans…so damn curious. Time to go…yes…must go."

Ian listens to the rambling of the old gentleman and comes up beside him with a look of confidence. Barbara briefly mentioned that perhaps he wasn't supposed to be there either; maybe there was some truth in that. Tapping on the door and gazing at the frazzled individual, Ian raised his eyebrows and smirked.

"Going inside there are we? Seems to me like you're in a bit of a hurry…too much of a hurry to worry about two people breaking and entering. Odd that isn't it."

"What do you mean young man?" The old man asked without looking at him.

"I mean you're not making too much of a deal of it. Oh you're barking at us and threatening us with police. But I don't see you going out of your way to do it. What's in there exactly? Something illegal? Something even you wouldn't bring the police to see? Maybe you stole this box, hm?"

"Ian…don't…" Barbara cautioned.

"Just open it up." Ian continues. "Come on, convince us there's nobody in there and we'll be on our way. Keep what ever secrets you have, but just show us what's inside before we actually go and get the law ourselves."

"NO!" The darkly dressed man scowls. "There's nothing in there for you to see. Stop wasting my time…and yours. If you're looking for your little lady friend, then toddle off and search the streets. It's a cold night and much too dark out there for someone to be wandering alone at night."

"And yet you were." Ian pointed out. "You know…I really do think you're hiding something. Maybe you're not the owner of this junkyard…maybe you're trespassing as much as we are? I think we'd better have a look in there and see if you've stolen something…or someone."

"Are you implying I am some sort a thief?" The old man snarled in contempt. "How dare you...I've had enough of this nonsense. And I for one have had enough of the likes of you."

Ian's face contorted with frustration and reached down to the handle the old man was still clutching too.

"Well, the feeling is mutual then. I'm tired of your games as well…time to open this door. Come on...show us that you've got nothing to hide what so ever."

The two begin to struggle with the door handle, the old man pants and wheezes as he tries to keep Chesterton from opening it up. Barbara joins in the struggle as she tries to pry them both off of the door.

"Let go! Let go of it I say!" The old man shouted.

"Ian don't! Please! Both of you stop it!" Barbara commanded.

As they continued to struggle away, the door opened slightly and now music could be heard from within. It was Susan's radio, the one that Ian had heard before. But there was another sound mixed in with it, a pulsating sound that nearly drowned out the radio.

"Oh there you are Grandfather! What are you doing out there?"

The voice that came out from inside was that of Susan's. Ian and Barbara perked at her voice and now looked at one another in relief. But as the old man tried close the door again, both teachers forced their way in.

"Close the door Susan! Close the Door!" The old man shouted.

But it was too late. Both teachers managed to shove him aside and stepped into the small blue police box.

••••••••••••••••••

Both of them soon came stumbling inside the box and noticed a slight wave of confusion as they entered. There was blink of darkness at first, but then they soon found themselves inside something much larger. Ian and Barbara stopped in their tracks and noticed their surroundings. This wasn't the inside of a small box, this was a massive room. A white marbled room with strange looking arches that looked organic in nature. The walls were perforated with round nodules embedded into the interior of it. It was like stepping into a quasi-futuristic Roman building, but with modern and antique furnisher decorating the place inside. At the heart of the room, was an octagonal control table, it too looked organic and marbled in texture, as if it had grown out of the floor. A massive clear column was built in the center of it; it stretched into the high cathedral like ceiling and right through it. Fluxuations of pale green-blue energy pulsated a soft light that sounded more like an electronic beating heart.

Turning around to face them was the doe eyed girl, Susan Forman. Having changed out of her school uniform, the girl was now dressed in a short sleeved shirt and wearing tightly fitted slacks that showed her figure. Both clothing items were navy in color, but her shirt had stripes that ran width wise with the white spacing them out in-between. The radio was still playing a tune, until the girl quickly turned it off and gaped at them standing there.

"Susan?" She muttered to the surprised girl.

"What are you two doing here?" Susan gasped.

Ian was still too amazed by what he saw, he wasn't even sure if he was truly believing what was going on. From a junkyard into this spacious room. This strange and bizarre room that defies all reason.

"Oh no! You can't be here! Grandfather will be so cross!" Susan panicked.

"And so I am!" The old man raised his voice from behind the two teachers. "I believe you know these…uh…persons do you?"

"Yes of course." Susan responded. "These are my school teachers…Mr. Chesterton and Ms. Wright. I told you about them remember?"

The frail gentleman came barging past the two bewildered teachers and straight to Susan at the controls.

"Foolish of you child. Foolish. You told them where to come…now look what's happened. I told you not to be followed, I told you not to give other the location of this place."

"But I didn't Grandfather!" Susan shouts with a sad look. "I didn't! They must have just followed me…themselves…I…I was trying to be very careful. Really I was!"

The old man closed the doors with a flick of a switch on the console table. The front of them looked like the wooden police box doors, but larger in appearance. The inside from which the closed where more like the design of the interior. With an odd hydraulic sound, the massive perforated marbled doors close quickly. Now the room was completely humming with power, all of which seemed to go into rhythm with the green-blue energy pulse.

"Oh please, Grandfather!" Susan pleaded. "I didn't know…they're harmless. Let them go. Please, don't do anything rash."

"I'm sorry my child." The old man said patting her head gently. "But they've seen to much. No…I can't let them go now."

As he turned away from the console and unbuttoned his coat. Susan looked at the teachers standing with confused faces and wiped the tears welling from her eyes.

"Why did you come? Why couldn't you just leave me alone? I didn't want you here!"

Ian and Barbara were still astounded by the sheer size of the room. It confused and frightened them being inside.

"This…this was a police box. There was nothing around it. You saw Barbara…you saw it didn't you?" Ian questioned to her.

Barbara just nodded in agreement and held her forehead in awe. Ian looked at the old gentleman and continued to ramble.

"How can something like this be? It's only a police box…isn't it? It can't be bigger on the inside then outside…it's impossible!"

The old man shook his head and gave a sigh of disbelief.

"You don't understand do you? No of course I see you don't. Let's put it this way…you have television don't you?"

"Yes."

"So you've done the impossible haven't you? Putting vast cities into one small electronic box. To a primitive, you've done something that's utterly impossible. It's all in perspective my boy…all in perspective. Oh but this is all too much for you to comprehend. I see it in your eyes. Too much for the likes of you to grasp my boy."

Ian hated that smug tone he got from the frail old man. His face drooped with seriousness and stared at him with contempt.

"You're treating me like a child now."

"Really?" The man giggled back at him. "Children of my kind would understand this sort of thing. It would be sheer basics for them."

Susan quickly came between the two men and darted her eyes at them both. Ian backed away feeling insulted and puzzled by the man's words. He wasn't sure what 'children of my kind' was supposed to mean.

"Susan…" Barbara quickly spoke as she returned to her senses. "We were concerned for you. Walking alone all the time, coming to this place…in here…whatever this is."

"We just wanted to make sure you were alright, that's all." Ian now assured her as he reached out his hand to the girl. "Come on…lets get you out and to a proper home."

"I am home." Susan affirmed to them. "This is my home…with my Grandfather."

"Your Grandfather is he?" Ian snickered. "This angry old fool?"

"Ian your not helping the matter." Barbara said shaking his arm. She turned back to the young girl still in tears as she glanced at them both. "We were only trying to help you, don't you understand? We wanted to make sure you were alright, that's all."

After removing his coat, scarf and hat onto a near by antique chair, the old man faces them again with a disappointed gaze. Underneath that coat was yet another old looking coat. A black mid-length suit coat that looked worn in and came to about his knees. It seemed to complete his old world look about him, even as he stood there scrunching his face.

"What business was it of yours to meddle in her affairs? Who are you to know what is right or wrong for my granddaughter? Eh?" He scoffed at them. "So these are the teachers you've been praising about? I see nothing remarkable about them. They're foolish humans…just like the rest out there in that god forsaken planet."

"Foolish? It's more foolish to be in this…this…" Ian tried to quip back. "What is this thing anyway? We were in a junkyard a second ago…I don't understand how this room possible? What is it?"

"It's the TARDIS…" Susan stated to him.

"I beg your pardon?" Barbara questioned to her.

"TARDIS." Susan smirked. "That's what I nicknamed it. T-A-R-D-I-S…it stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space."

"Oh don't bother explaining it to them, they'd never understand my girl." The Grandfather grumbled. "They forced they're way into the ship and now…'

"Ship?" Ian interrupted. "What ship? This is thing is suppose to be a ship?"

"Yes! Yes! Ship." The old man answered back. "It doesn't run on wheels you know. I tolerate this century, but not the people living in it. Always looking for answers and doubting things with their own eyes. I'm amazed your species survived for as long as it has because of such closed minded points of view. We are travelers and this is our means of transportation, but I doubt your feeble brains could comprehend the very notion of its propulsion. So never mind."

"Travelers?" Barbara says with puzzlement. "In this thing? Really Susan…come with us, you belong with us."

"I wish I could stay. I do love being in this century, in this decade…making friends and listening to the music. But I belong here." The girl replied. "I'm not of your kind."

"What do you mean? Of our kind?" Ian glanced at her.

"I was born in another time, on a different world."

Barbara and Ian both looked at her with great confusion, she wasn't making any sense. Instead of questioning the girl anymore about it, Ian shook his head and grasped her by the shoulders.

"No more of this nonsense Susan, this is a fantasy and living like this doesn't do you any good." Ian groaned at the girl. "Because the world isn't the way we like doesn't mean we should have to create another to escape it."

The old man came between them and waved his finger at him.

"Don't insult her intelligence…which is more then yours I dare say. She's speaking the truth, young man!" The old man shuffled over to his granddaughter and wrapped his left arm around her proudly as he continued. "We are not of this planet. We're from a world well out of your space and time."

Taking a moment to compose himself, the elderly man released his embrace from Susan and pressed his finger to his lips. He darted his eyes about as he finished his thought in a side view from them all.

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel in the fourth dimension…have you? To be wanderers throughout all time and space…to be exiles."

Ian just peered at him as if he were mad. He could see that reasoning with this sort would be no use; perhaps this explains why Susan was so self-reliant.

"You're insane." Chesterton stated. "You're a looney and you've dragged you're poor granddaughter right into your own delusions. That makes you totally unfit to be a legal guardian over her!"

"Oh does it now?" The old man giggled. "And what law of yours could be bound to me, hm? Out there, on your world, you might have the authority…but in here sir…in here is my world. This is my domain, in here I am the only authority!"

Barbara walks up beside Ian and grabbed his arm in fear. Susan turned her Grandfather around to face her and pleaded with him again.

"We don't have to do this Grandfather. Please, they'll say nothing about it. Just open the doors and let them leave…they won't reveal anything!"

"Yes." Ian agreed. "Let us out of here. Keep your insanity and foolish tricks to yourself…come on Barbara."

The two walk to the doors and try to pry them open. The seamless lines from which the doors keep together do not sit well with either of the teachers. Their fingers slip and fumble about trying to find a crack or a raised edge to get a grasp of. With nothing to hold on too or even the strength to open them up, Ian turns around and saw the old man giggling as he gazed at them both. Ian was fed up with all of the nonsense and screamed that the man.

"You've had your fun with us! Now let us out!"

The elderly man just laughed and walked over to the controls once more. Facing them from the opposite side, he glared at the two with a slightly insane glint.

"Oh, can't get out eh? I told you not to come in…but you just wouldn't listen too me. Too bad for you. But if you like you can activate the switch and free yourselves. I'm not going to help you figure it out; humans think they know all so why not prove it. Go ahead, I won't stop you."

Ian notices a large round red button on the console. The entire control center looked like a jumble of high tech buttons, flashing lights mixed in with ancient electronic dials and other switches of a by-gone age. As he quickly came up to the octangular table, he saw some writing on or near the various controls. Faded symbols and odd writings that he wasn't too familiar with. Still it all looked overwhelming to him, built in monitors on the table were distracting as they showed scrolling lines and images of what looked like the galaxy zooming in and having odd circular shapes forming around the sectors of it. As he concentrated back on the button the old man was peering at as hint to him, a strange smirk came upon his face. He was tired of playing around with this old fool, but decided to end it with doing this one last thing.

"Go on…go on my boy." The quirky old man giggled. "Push the button and it will all be over. Back to your boring little lives in a time of utter foolishness. You'll be on your way…and we'll be off to ours."

Ian brings his finger down just as Susan suddenly realizes what it is he's pressing.

"No! Stop don't touch it! It's the…"

Before he could heed her warning, Ian pushes down on it with his finger and becomes alarmed by the loud noise from its activation. Suddenly the lights dim and round see-through column of the TARDIS lights up. The flash of the energy is blinding, a greenish-blue pulse that seems to bring an eerie look into the strange room. As Ian holds his arm up to his eyes for protection, he backs away from the controls and returns to where Barbara is standing. She too was averting her eyes from the glow that suddenly sprung up; she had turned her head as far away as she could while grasping onto Chesterton as he approached. The shifting patterns of color danced about in the column, pulsating and moving about as if it were alive inside. As the teachers braved themselves to look back at the controls, there stood the old man snickering as if he was amused by their antics.

"Humans…always interfering with what they don't know." He giggled at them. "The question now is…what are we going to do with you?"

"Let them go….please Grandfather." Susan said as she began to shed a tear.

The aged man just tilted his head at her and placed his hands on both lapels of his black coat. The smile appeared on his face that would look almost evil to some, but this was only him deep thought, with a glare in his eye that seemed to give Susan a moment of dread. He shuffled himself over to the controls and placed his hands on the various switches and knobs. Pausing his frantic state of mind, he looked back at both teachers and scowled at them.

"I can't let you go. It's too late…much too late." He growled. "You say you want proof do you? Then proof I shall give my young friend."

Susan screamed and tried to pry him away from the controls, but it was too late. The old man shouted at her for holding him back and quickly returned to them as Susan lost her grip on him. As he circled around the octagonal shaped controls in a feverish pitch, he pulled the lever on the left side and watched the column as two energy surges came from opposite ends. The collision in the center caused the room to fill with a large distortion wave; it threw both Barbara and Ian to the ground causing them to hit their heads hard on the marble like floor. Blackness consumed their visions as they could hear the machine pump a whooshing sound that rose and fell with each pulse. Fading into unconsciousness, both of them heard the old man speak to Susan as they stood in the distance.

"I knew it was a mistake for us to stay too long. Now look what's happened…hm? Mark my words young lady, these friends of yours are going to be nothing but trouble for us."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

The swirls and motions of time and space danced about in Ian's thoughts, he could almost feel it contorting his body and mind as if he was being thrown about in a vacuumous hurricane. The non-stop sound of the TARDIS column rising and falling sung like a distant tune in the background. Visions of planets, exploding stars, and of various unknown people flashed in his mind. Faces of old friends, Barbara, Susan and others he had no memory of flickered away in a jumble of randomness. Were they people from his past or visions of those to come in his future? The rapid action of it all confused his senses, bright lights, the old man's giggle and the rhythmic sound of the engine pulsating through it all. As the images began to fade in his mind's eye, he heard a sweet young female voice calling to him as it made him stir from unconsciousness.

"Mr. Chesterton? Are you all right? Mr. Chesterton – Would you like some tea?"

The voice, a familiar voice that is, makes him grin and breathe in slightly. As his eyes flutter to open and focus on a face hovering over him, the man struggles to speak.

"Wha….who….yes, yes I would. Susan? It is Susan isn't it?"

Clearly it was Susan Foreman looking at him. She gave him a broad smile and helped him to sit up from the floor he was lying down on. A cup of tea now was placed in his hand as he sat up straight, a simple mug that anyone would have in their home, but hot to the touch. He fumbled with it as to get to the handle and sipped it carefully. Giving a slight pleased tone, he drank a bit more and looked over his left shoulder. There sitting next to him was Barbara, she too had a cup of tea in hand and was looking more aware then he was.

"What happened?" Ian utters with curiosity.

"You both collapsed on the floor." Susan explained with a wide eye gaze. "The spacial flux always affects those who cross the barrier. Those that aren't accustomed to traveling beyond time and space that is."

"Time and Space?" Chesterton moans.

It suddenly dawns on him on where he is; at first he thought it was all a dream, the old man, the strange police box and the weird lights. But as he focused his attention back to the center of the room, he realized this was no dream. There at the controls puttering about like a kid on Christmas, was Susan's Grandfather. He was all smiles and giggling away as he delighted in each dial turned or button pushed. Susan helped the disoriented teacher to stand as he took a long slow sip of his tea.

"Are you alright Ian?" Barbara asked as she continues to sit and drink her tea as well.

"Yes." He answered after gulping down the hot beverage. "My head feels a bit odd, as if I was floating."

"Oh, that will be the effect of the TARDIS my dear boy." The old man quipped as he over heard them. "Just a normal side effect. Yes, very normal for anyone – soon it will allow your minds to comprehend other languages and read alien text."

"What?" Barbara said standing up. "You mean this machine allows one to translate things we normally wouldn't? Like understanding ancient Egyptian even though I hadn't before?"

"Precisely my dear." The aged man smiled as he glared at her. "You've understood perfectly. Promising – yes, very promising."

"But that's not possible." Ian scoffs. "A machine can't do that. It's just a machine."

"Ah but this is no ordinary machine you're in." The old man proudly said tilting his head back and placing his hands on his coat laurels. "This is an ancient vessel that was once used by my ancestors to charter every corner of space and time. Its sophistication is beyond your simple logic, technology of both mechanical and biological of such advanced design that it practically takes care of itself. Some dared to call these crafts 'living machines' and that they were capable of thought – which of course is utter nonsense. It is what it is, nothing more, nothing less."

Ian shook his head in confusion, gave Susan his cup of tea and walked over to confront the aged man.

"Look here, I don't care what happened really. I just want you to open those doors and let us out. I don't know what you've done, but Barbara and I are getting out of here. Keep your damn secret as far as I'm concerned."

"You see?" Susan's Grandfather sighed at her. "They don't understand – they still don't after all they've witnessed. Dear, oh dear. I'm wasting my time trying to explain it to them."

He turned away from Ian and walked around the controls with a disappointed gaze.

"The question now my dear fellow is what is going to happen to you? Hm? You say you want out - very well. If that is how it must be, then I suppose out we shall go."

The TARDIS sudden increases it's loud whooshing sound as the man fiddles with controls; the center column rises and falls with a sudden halt. Everyone jolts around as it feels like a lift dropping to the ground floor. The TARDIS noise stops and nothing is heard bout a background hum of power. The old man turns to them, smiles and presses a button. A holographic widescreen appears just beyond the center control station, it hovers overhead and flickers an image of such clarity that both teachers had never seen before. If this was a television, it was of such rich colors and resolution that it made the ones they had at their homes look like ancient technology.

"Where are we Grandfather?" Susan asked in a curious tone.

"I don't know yet child." He replied. "Come over here and read some of these indicators for me."

Susan gladly nodded and helped her Grandfather study the information coming up on the various flat monitors scrolling data. The same unidentifiable language was appearing on the monitor, with numbers and symbols that meant nothing to Chesterton and Ms. Wright. Still they couldn't take their eyes off the hovering image above. A lush green environment, with sounds of roaring animals in the background.

"Yes, yes – looks alright, hm?" The old man smiled and nodded with delight. "Everything looks normal, air is good, weather is nice, nothing blocking the TARDIS outside…uh…how is the radiation count Susan?"

"It's at zero Grandfather." She smiled at him. "Do you know where or when we are?"

Placing both his hands on either side of his coat laurels, he twiddled his thumbs on them and gave sigh of frustration.

"I'm not exactly sure when we are my dear, it seems the time counter isn't working again. Most distressing, I must get that repaired. But from what I can gather – and this is just an estimation mind you – we're on Earth, say…oh…a few millions years in the past. Yes, that sounds about right. I won't know precisely until a get a few samples and make sure of the specifics."

"Wait a minute!" Ian shouted. "What do you mean in the past? Are you telling us we've traveled backwards in time?"

"Yes of course." The old man sighed at him.

"But that's impossible. Time can only go forward…it's linear not circular. You can't just travel willy nilly through time and get off at any point you'd like."

The aged man laughed at Ian's primitive notion of time, he was utterly amused at his foolish words and walked around the console looking up at the screen above.

"Humans, oh how utterly stupid they are at this stage in development. If only Einstein could hear this, he'd be laughing just as I am. Time is infinite my boy, infinite. While it might not be conceivable to you, my kind have been traveling through it for hundreds of centuries."

Ian pounds his fist on the control table and scowled.

"Listen Doctor Foreman! Enough of this…this…nonsense you're feeding us!"

"Eh?" The old man suddenly jerked his head in confusion and muttered to himself. "What was that? Doctor who? What's he prattling on about?"

Barbara put down her tea on the antique table beside her chair, stood up and held Ian by the shoulders to make him calm down.

"Enough Ian. He's obviously telling the truth."

Chesterton laughed out loud.

"Oh Barbara! Tell me you're not buying into this fantasy he's spreading are you?"

"What if I am?" She said pulling away from him. "Can you explain everything that's happened so far? I think they're telling the truth about all this. No matter how outlandish it is."

The Doctor turned around and smiled at her. Susan walked over to Ian and tried to convince him further.

"Mr. Chesterton – I – I know this is all a bit much to take in. And I wouldn't have wished it on you and Ms. Wright for the world. But you must believe this is all really happening. You need to let go of that twentieth century mind frame and just believe in what is happening around you."

The man continued to laugh and walked away in a giddy manner. As he began to calm down, he let in a deep breath and glanced back at them all.

"You're all insane I tell you. You've all gone mad and trying to drag me down into your madness as well."

"Enough of that young man." The Doctor said to him like a scolding parent. "Get a hold of yourself and stop trying to be so dismissive of what's been happening. It's high time you learned that all things do not conform to what one narrow point of view can see. You wanted to get out sir…is that still what you desire?"

"Yes." Ian nodded. "Very much."

"Fine." The Doctor said as he moved over to the controls. "Then I say we all should get out and get a bit of fresh air. It might do us good and allow you to calm down before you say any more foolish things to these poor girls."

Shifting down on a lever with a round red ball on it, the old man activates the doors and they swing open with the odd hydraulic sound. The light pours into the ship and the breeze of air floods the place. The rich smell of the plant life outside causes Ian to look and notice that it looks almost exactly like the image on the hovering screen that soon dissolves off. Barbara, Susan and the Doctor step out one at a time through the open doors. Ian is a bit hesitant, but soon follows behind.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

While the doors are wide and dual on either side, he notices that stepping through them he is coming to a narrowing point and now exiting out the single door of the blue box. He couldn't fathom how that was possible, nor could he explain the fact that now he was outside in a lush sunny environment of a jungle type setting.

"Its not possible." He muttered.

"My god…its true. It's all true." Barbara gasped in amazement.

The TARDIS was resting on the top of a mountainous range; thick with trees, bushes, flowers and unknown plant life they'd never seen before. Ian took two steps around the craft and suddenly stopped as he saw he was about to fall off the edge of the outcropping they were on. A slight panic came to him as he leaped back against the box and sprawled back to where the others were. Just beyond the TARDIS, looking very worried and confused, the Doctor kept looking back at his craft and muttered to himself.

"It's still a police box. That can't be right – why hasn't it changed? Dear me, this won't do. Problems mounting on problems."

Susan walks out away from Barbara and turns to look at the TARDIS in confusion as well.

"It didn't change." She loudly observed.

"What hasn't?" Ms. Wright asked.

"The TARDIS of course." Susan again shouts as she points. "It didn't turn into something else."

"What do you mean?" Barbara questioned as she looks with the bewildered girl. "Is it supposed to change its appearance?"

"Well, yes. The TARDIS is suppose to blend in with the surrounding environment, that's how it doesn't get noticed in what ever time or planet it arrives at. But it didn't change this time? Why?"

Barbara shrugged her shoulders with a blank look. She hadn't the slightest idea of what Susan was going on about. But continued to stare at this blue box sitting in a prehistoric setting, it was somewhat surreal to have this object against the backdrop of wilderness. Ian walked around the area and marveled at all the plant life. He had to touch it to make sure he wasn't dreaming, the feel of the tropical heat caused him to sweat and took off his coat he still wore. Barbara also removed her coat and took of her sweater underneath. The two teachers laughed with a giddy delight as they came back together and threw their coats to the ground.

"Do you believe it all now Mr. Chesterton?" Susan smiled at him.

"Yes, yes alright." He acknowledged. "I believe – I finally and really believe you. It's amazing…simply amazing! I've got to hand it to you and the Doctor Forman – this is truly a dream come true."

Barbara nodded in agreement. But soon she looked over to where the Doctor should have been and noticed him gone. Her eyes darted about and followed it with her head turning as well.

"Where is he? He was just here a second ago?"

"Doctor?" Ian said raising his voice. "Doctor! Are you there?"

Susan turned and walked a few feet in front. A panic drew in her eyes as she started to worry.

"Grandfather?" She shouted. "Grandfather! Where are you? Grandfather!"

Barbara rushed over to calm the excited girl down and Ian walked past them both with a deep glare into the dense jungle.

"Barbara – you and Susan stay here. I'm going to go look for him, he can't of gone far."

"I want to go look for him!" Susan commanded. "He's my responsibility. He's old and I – I – have to take care of him."

"No Susan!" Ian spoke back at her. "The last thing we need is more of us wandering about and getting lost."

"What is it Ian?" Barbara questioned as if she could tell of the look of fear on his face.

"Don't you get it?" He said with a nervous twinge. "We're in the past – prehistoric past to be specific. There are much larger things to worry about then getting a bug bite or running into thick brush. No, I heard those loud roars in the distant. Strange they might be to you and I, but the normal sound of those who occupy this point and time."

"Dinosaurs?" Ms. Wright responded with a curious gaze.

"And not you typical museum types either." Chesterton scoffs. "It would be rather ripping to see one in the flesh as it were – but not like this, not in their environment."

Ian rolls up his white shirtsleeves and points to them both.

"Stay here. Keep close to the box, I'll be back with the Doctor shortly."

He quickly scurried into the forest beyond and could be heard smacking the massive leaves and branches out of his way. Both Susan and Barbara stood in place and listened to the sounds of the wildlife all around. The roars of beasts, either hostile or otherwise, filled the air with an ominous sound that send a cold shiver down Ms. Wright's back. The inconceivable horror of being in this era was dawning on her mind, humans wouldn't exist for millions of years later, and they alone were the only members of their kind here. But as she looked back on a frightened Susan, she changed her thought and knew that it was only herself and Ian that were the humans. It was all a bit much to take in for such a short span of time.

"I'm so afraid Barbara." The girl nervously wined. "Poor Grandfather is out there. And now Ian is putting his life in jeopardy as well. I didn't mean for all this to happen. I really didn't. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"

As Susan cried into her hands, Barbara came closer to her and finally began to comfort the child. Alien or not, she was still a little girl that seemed to need some love and support. It was the human thing to do and perhaps what Susan needed in her life after being stuck with her cranky relative for so long.

"There, there Susan." The woman said kissing the top of her head. "It's not your fault. You didn't know we'd end up following you. I was just so concerned about your well being. The fault is mine. I shouldn't have been so damn curious."

"But – I just – I can't help it." The girl continued to wail. "If I had only listened to Grandfather in the first place and not gotten involved at your school – I guess my curiosity is just as much to blame is yours."

"See." Barbara started to laugh. "We're both trying to apologize for things beyond our control. Not so different at all – are we now?"

"No." Susan snickered as her fear faded. "I guess do share some things in common. Curiosity killed the cat, so they say. Such a silly saying isn't it? One tries so hard not to make those mistakes, but ends up doing it anyway."

The woman patted the child on the shoulders in comfort and looked out to the dense forest beyond.

"Everyone makes mistakes, Susan. We can only learn from them and try to not repeat them again."

"I don't want any of mine to hurt you or Mr. Chesterton." Susan said pulling away slowly. "You two have meant a great deal to me in the time I've gotten to know you. I think very highly of you both. Despite what my Grandfather says, I think you're both very kind and intelligent people. My dearest of friends."

Barbara was very flattered by that remark, she was happy Susan had thought of them that fondly. She always considered the girl like a smaller sister, someone she took pride in and felt generally comfortable to talk too.

"Then as a friend – " Barbara stated back to her with a smile. "I say, let's forget about all this and concentrate on helping to find your Grandfather."

"What about Ian?" The girl questioned. "He told us to stay here. Won't he be cross at us for not doing so?"

"Yes he did." The woman snickered. "But I won't tell him if you won't."

Susan gave a nod and laughed at her answer. She could see they were going to get along very well. The two held hands and headed into the dense woods with one another.


End file.
